What more could you have asked for from the return of best-on-best hockey?
It took overtime, but Canada came out on top on home ice, downing Sweden 4-3 in the opening game of the inaugural 4 Nations Face-Off on Wednesday night.
Canada’s much-discussed firepower was the decisive factor in the outing, as Mitch Marner played the hero to score the game-winning goal in the extra period.
Prior to the game-winning goal, Sweden played as resilient a game as it gets. Despite twice falling behind by two goals, the Tre Kronor refused to be denied, rallying back in the third period with goals from Adrian Kempe and Joel Eriksson Ek to tie up the game at three apiece and send it to OT.
Sidney Crosby had three assists for Canada in the win.
Because the game went to overtime, Canada didn’t earn the full three points for the win and instead came away with only two. Sweden earned one for the OT loss.
Sweden’s next game comes against Finland on Saturday at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT. Later on Saturday, Canada gears up for a battle against the rival United States at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT.
More to come.
